Meandering With Murphy

On Friday, April 26 Rouge Bordeaux was making preparations for the return of Sawyer and Fynn. They were staying with Julien’s parents, Agnes and Alain in Lyon. They had been there for two weeks on a mini vacation and Megan and Julien were very excited to see them back home. They weren’t going to arrive until after nine in the evening so we had the morning and early afternoon to take in another adventure.

Surprise, surprise, Mary had discovered a new winery for Megan and Julien to visit. Chateau Moulin de Launay produces Entre-Deux-Mers wine, a type of wine Megan and Julien did not have on their winery tour list.

Enter-Deux-Mers is a wine region in Bordeaux. It is situated between the rivers Garonne and Dordogne, and is bounded in the east by the border of the Gironde department and in the west by the Bec d’Ambes, the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne. At 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) it is the largest sub-region of Bordeaux although, as there are large areas of forest, relatively little of it is used for growing grapes. There are about 250 growers making wine there. The name of the region is derived, not from the French word “mer” (sea) but from “maree” (tide). Thus it means “between two tides”, a reference to its location between two tidal rivers.

And how was it that Mary had discovered this winery in France? Well, Mary and Scott belonged to the Grapeviners wine club through the 54th and Lyndale Liquor store. It was 2002 (yes, I keep this stuff) and there was a wine tasting featuring wines from Bordeaux. We liked the wine so I kept the information describing the chateau and wine. Well, when we were coming to Bordeaux I went through my “stuff” and found this winery which is not far from Auros. I sent an email to Ludovic Greffier, the owner of Chateau Moulin de Launay and he said we could come for a tasting. What fun!

Chateau Moulin de Launay has been producing wines for more than 150 years and for 5 generations. Vignobles Greffier has an exclusive production of dry white wines that make it a specialist thoughout Bordeaux. Ludovic said that they have 74 hectares and they want to keep this specialty by diversifying their grape varieties. So far they have six varieties: Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Semillons, Mucadelle, Ugny Blanc and Colombard. They are located around the highest point of the Gironde which has always been in the family. Currently his wines are a blend the all of the varieties but this year he will be producing a single variety using Ugny Blanc. He is very creative in his wine making process.

Because of the terrain they originally used gravity to bring the juice into the winery. They did not use any pumps. Today they sill use gravity but they use pumps to bring the juice into the winery.

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We went outside to the bottling room and got to see his mechanical harvester. He explained he does not pick by hand because he does not have enough staff and the mechanical harvester is faster.

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Ludovic is not only creative in his use of grapes but he also has private labeled wines for a client and has even provided one client with his wine in boxes. Below, the carton for his boxed wine, his Entre-Deux-Mer with the current label and he said the last label would have been the Entre-Deux-Mer label that we would have had in 2002.

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On Saturday for dinner Julien was going to be making a chicken dinner for his family and we were invited too! We had to pick some things up for the meal but first we headed to lunch in Monsegur to a restaurant, La Piece de Boeuf, that Ludovic recommended. Low and behold they had a covered market and we could get most of what we needed.

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Restaurant La Piece de Boeuf. A nice spot on a rainy day. They had a glass covered eating area. There is a 200 year old grape vine that covers the glass to provide shade in the summer.

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